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Communiqué to the Attorney General ...
Farmers of Ahmed Rashid village cry for help from the Endowment Corporation
The LCHR has received dozens of complaints from the farmers of Ahmed Rashid village in Ashmoun - Monoufia province affected by the Endowment body that is filing police records against them on the grounds of trespassing on government properties, and telling them to evacuate their homes and threatening them with imprisonment for at least three years
According to the complaints, the body which was established to support small farmers and improve their conditions is demanding money that it doesn't deserve. As these houses owned by the farmers and their fathers and grandfathers who had owned them with the end of the nineteenth century. The unfortunate thing is that the Endowment body applies these procedures in all the villages that it claims the ownership of, leading to the eviction of small farmers their houses, although it does not own the lands or the houses.
The LCHR presented applications to the Court demanding farmers' innocence of the charge of infringement on the Endowment's properties. As the Penal Code requires that certain acts take place to conduct the crime of abuse and requires a statement that whether the abuse is farming, housing, accommodation or any other act, as well as requires a statement place and type of the basin to ensure the protection of individuals and to ensure the legal procedures and substantive implications of these data, as if not mentioned in the record to be invalid.
The Center presented a communication to the Attorney-General to stop filing lawsuits of abuse against the peasants because of their invalidity, and the punishment of the Endowment employees who take advantage of their job to take farmers' money, displace them, threaten them with imprisonment and expulsion from their homes.
It is worth mentioning that the people of Ahmed Rashid village live there for over a hundred years now and have inherited these lands and homes from their parents and grandparents. There are about 3000 individuals living in this village now.
What is regrettable that in the twenty-first century people can not repair their homes in spite of the old cracks because of the refusal of the various government departments to their requests for the restoration and renovation of their homes, as the Endowment Corporation is filing lawsuits against them for the infringement of the property, which expose the farmers to imprisonment. Is imprisonment and displacement the fate of the farmers and their families, who renovate their homes that are full of breaks and cracks for fear the collapse of their houses.
The Center demands the Prime Minister, the Minister of Endowment and the Governor Monoufia to quickly intervene to stop the filing of lawsuits against the farmers and enable them of owning the village lands, which they live in. And license them to restore and renovate their homes in order to preserve their rights to housing and to secure their families from homelessness.
It also calls the institutions of the civil society and members of the People's Assembly to unite in solidarity with the rights of these farmers for the ownership of their lands which they live in and permit them rehabilitated and provide them with services in order to stop the their displacement and guarantee their rights to housing, security, dignified life and freedom.
For more information, please contact the Center